A W(h)ine Tax
After awhile it starts to become predictable.
As soon as you spot another state of the Australian w(h)ine industry article in the media, you know, more or less, the line the particular protagonist is going to be taking.
If it's the Prim (sic) Minister you know the remarks are going to flavoured by his thing about binge drinking.
If it's the Leader of the Opposition you know it's going to be more or less diametrically opposed to whatever the other bloke said.
If it's someone from one of the corporate conglomerates that dominate the Australian food and liquor industries it'll be whatever is best suited to justifying the obscene bonus cheque he's looking to vote himself at the corporation AGM.
If it's coming from a premium wine producer....
I'm sure you get the picture. Identify the key speaker in the article and their position is pretty predictable.
If it's Hughesy speaking, of course, it's a case of: I want to be able to keep drinking the best quality wines I can afford.
Now, regardless of who's analysing the current situation in the Australian wine industry three things are pretty obvious:
(a) We need to reduce the size of the annual vintage;
(b) We need to get rid of the wine lake that's already out there, and;
(c) It'd probably help if we could persuade some people to get out of the industry, which would make (a) and (b) a bit easier.
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